Our Baby Turns 2

This post will be all about the dreaded day that finally arrived...our little baby girl turning 2!! I know some of you may read this and think I am being silly, which I would respond that I probably am. However, that doesn't change the emotions I have been feeling this week realizing that the last baby we will ever have is rapidly pulling away from her babyhood and approaching being a real little girl.


As her birthday has been approaching, I have been flooded with memories of the past few years. Snuggling close with Kailey in the hospital just hours after finding out God had answered our prayers and given us the precious baby girl we had so hoped for. (We didn't know what we were having until we heard, "Its a Girl!" in the delivery room.) Also, memories have flooded in of watching our little girl hit her different milestones, babbling more, sitting up, starting to crawl, and then eventually-it took her 16 months-walking. Thinking about our sweet girl tearing into her cake for the first time on her birthday last year brings tears to my eyes.

 Here is Jadon and Daddy giving Kailey her first bath at home.

Kailey used to have such spikey hair, especially after a bath. 

And here she is fast-forwarded to 6 months when we were in Galveston. She was sitting up good by six months and loved to smile and giggle.

Here the kids are visiting their Mimi and PawPaw in Arkansas. Wow I forgot that was the summer of short haircuts. I guess they wanted to match their sister, who didn't have a lot of hair then.

Now we flash forward again to Christmas time in 2010. I love this portrait Jeremy took of all the kids together in their Christmas outfits. Kailey had gotten so big by then and was starting to play with her brothers more. Look how her hair started to fill in too (and so did the boys)!

That first year went by so quickly and before we knew it we were celebrating our ladybug's big 1st Birthday!!

She loved her birthday cake!!

But she still wanted to share with her Mama! She's a such a sweet girl!!

I love this photo. You can't see, but it is her PawPaw Larry who is making her laugh so much behind her. Over this past year, their special bond has grown even closer.

These photos make me realize just how much she has changed over the course of a year (well not just her, but all the kids). She went from speaking very few words, like "Mama," "Dadda", and "eat" and "ball", to a little girl very gifted at making known EXACTLY what it is she wants and is trying to say. She can even ask her big brother to change her diaper. "Bubba change me diiper..Jaygen change meee." I especially love that one and twice so far she has even convinced him to actually do it. I really am hoping that one will become a regular!! Haha!! She also says, "What wrong wit Jaygen?" when he is upset with something, or when I get her out of bed in the morning, she'll say "where Reece at?"


But her changing hasn't just been in personality. Looking at the photos below from her birthday this year you can definitely see just how much she has changed. For one, I can't believe how much her hair has grown this year. So much so that its getting to the point I don't always know what to do with it and how to get it out of her face. I definitely have a first haircut on the top of my to-do list this month.


This picture is actually on her birthday, which we really didn't do much because her Daddy had to work on her birthday. But I still saved her some of her cupcakes that you see her eating here. I also made her chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, and we saved a few presents for her to open that day as well.

The day before is when we actually celebrated her birthday. We kept her party pretty low-key this year for two reason. One was we just really didn't plan well this year and realized just how difficult it is going to be having a birthday so close after Christmas. The other reason is when we started thinking of friends to invite we realized all we had were boys that were the boys' friends, and we wanted to take her to the Carousel at the mall, so we didn't know if 4-8 year-old boys would enjoy that all that much. (Although our boys do.) I guess we really need to work on getting her some girl friends this year.


Anyway, so we went to the mall and let her play on the playground and then let the kids ride the carousel as much as they wanted. She really loved it!!

She really does love playing with her brothers.

Then it was off to the carousel

The boys had a great time too!!

Kailey wanted to ride the sleigh with her big brother.

One of the family who celebrated with us, missing Aunt Peggy though who was taking this photo.

Then it was off for dinner and birthday cupcakes.



She was excited to open her presents from her Mimi and PawPaw.

The next day, she got to play with some of her new toys from Mimi and PawPaw. She really liked these dolls they got her because you can just pop on these clothes. She was really concentrating hard here on getting the clothes on.

So Kailey, even though we didn't have a huge party for you this year, it was a great birthday. You have changed so much over this last year that I just can't imagine how different you will be this time next year. And even though it is difficult and somewhat sad to see you growing up, I am also excited for what the future holds for you. You are such an amazing little girl and I amazed by your spirit, so I can only imagine what that spirit will be like at age 3, 4, 5 and even 25.


I was trying to think of how to describe your personality, and it is difficult because you are so many things. You are sweet and precious, very gentle and like to sit and cuddle with Mama for much longer than your brothers ever did. But you also are so full of spunk and you know what you want, which sometimes can be taken as bossy. The other day Reece said, "You are sooo bossy. You are not the princess you know!" Haha! But you do know that you are just that. And I think that is great that you do know you are the unique one of the family...that there is something a little different between you and your brothers. But yet, sometimes you act just like one of the boys playing with cars, and action heroes and wrestling with them. Just today you guys were all chasing each other around in your superhero capes!


But then later I will find you rocking your babies and putting chapstick or "cheepstick" as you like to say on your babies. You sometimes even rock your sippy cup. And sometimes you convince your brothers to play babies with you too. Or when you get in your dancing moods and start twirling around the living room dancing to whatever music is one, that's when we see your sweet girl side come out. Our Little Ladybug, you bring something so unique to our family and we are so blessed to have you. You bring spunk and rebellion, sweetness and tenderness, and silliness and dancing all wrapped up in one package. Our family would not be the same without you!!

 So happy birthday to our precious little girl. We are excited to be on this adventure of life with you right now and can't wait to see what God does with you!!

Surgery Day

Today was a difficult and busy day but one I was able to get through because of the grace of God and the many prayers going up on our behalf. Our 4-year-old son, Reece, had to have a mole on his head removed. Not fun!!

A few months ago we noticed a mole on Reece's head that looked like it had gotten bigger and darker. So we took him to have it checked and they said it was a Spitz tumor, which just means it is a mole that looks a lot like Melanoma, but isn't. But because it looks so much like the meaner version, they recommend it be totally removed just in case. 

Luckily, they let us wait until after the holidays to have it removed. So today was the big day. Everything went okay, it was just a lot more than what we were told. Basically, I felt like I wasn't prepared because the nurse made it seem like it was going to be just like the biopsy we had on the mole, only going a little deeper. Well, they went deeper but took a lot bigger area out than we had expected. I won't go into the details, but we were told he would have "a couple" of stiches and he ended up with at least 7. Here is a picture of the area. 

They also did not tell us that only one parent would be allowed in the room, so I had to deal with everything by myself. But in typical Reece fashion he was such a trooper. Because he did so well with the biopsy they decided not to use anesthesia, which we were very happy about. So all he had was a topical numbing creme before they gave him the shot to numb the area. Well this was the worst part for him because the area ended up being bigger, which meant more of the shots. He was so amazing sqeezing my hand and trying to be brave, but every once in awhile he would start to cry and then he would just burst out giggling. I think he thought he wasn't supposed to cry, even though I kept telling him it was okay to cry. Anyway, the worst part was him looking up at me with tears welled up saying, "done yet Mommy?" and I had to say not yet. But after we made it through that part the actual surgery part was much better.  

I am still amazed how a four year old could sit still for more than 45 minutes while they did surgery on him!! And he never once moved or jerked, or even complained about it or tried to touch his head. I'm not even sure I could do so well! I think that is just our Reece though. He can just be such a trooper and wants to make everyone happy. But I also definitely know we all had the peace of God today, and praying with him just before the surgery started seemed to give him a lot of peace too. So for anyone who prayed for us today, we could definitely feel it. 

So after the big event we wanted him to go have a little fun, so since we had such a nice day we had a family picnic at a park, followed by his favorite ice cream at Baskin Robins. What flavor you might ask? Well chocolate peanut butter of course. 

  And here he is after enjoying some of it. After what he went through he deserved some good ice cream!

Of course his brother and sister got to enjoy the ice cream too. And Jadon even tried sherbert for the first time and realized he actually did like it. (He doesn't like ice cream...I know crazy, right?) 

And Kailey had the same ice cream has Reece. It looks like we are pigging out here, but Daddy was sharing with us too, (well when she was letting him...ha!)

So in the end we turned a not-so-fun morning into a fun family day. "All things are possible through Him who gives me Strength."

Tomorrow we are celebrating little Kailey's 2nd birthday!! So my next post will be about her big special day!!